Page 21 of Riding the Line (Steel Saints MC #1)

“Okay, just one question. Was it always the bedroom or did you ‘see’ other areas of the house?” She used air quotations and swayed her hips suggestively. Maria laughed, and I couldn’t help but smile as I felt a blush creep up my neck. A blush that Holly, of course, noticed.

“You dirty dog, you.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved her out the door, but I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I watched them until they were in the elevator and Maria shouted, “Love you!” as the doors closed.

Little things like that had me realizing I was going to be picking pieces of my heart off the floor for the rest of my life.

The next morning, I pulled into the clubhouse, my Triumph sputtering to a stop.

I had barely gotten her started this morning, and she had acted funny the whole way here.

I looked around before settling on Bobby, one of the guys who usually lingered around the garage tinkering on something or another.

“Hey, can you do me a favor?”

He got up from the couch as I approached, untangling himself from some girl.

“What’s up, Nicky?”

I tossed him my keys, which he caught easily. “Something’s wrong with my baby. Can you check it out for me? Please?”

He grinned, showing off a missing bottom tooth. “Are you kidding? I’ve been wanting to get my hands on that bike since the day you first pulled in.”

I thanked him, warning him to be gentle with her, before heading into the kitchen to start breakfast.

A few of the guys were hanging out by the coffee pot, and they greeted me with nods and hellos.

Rodney was there, and poured me a cup which I happily took.

Part of me wondered where Dalton was, since he was usually my morning caffeine supplier.

I settled on something easy for breakfast, pulling out some biscuits I’d made and frozen.

With those in the oven, I got to work on some sausage gravy. As I was cooking, my phone rang.

“This is Nicky.”

“Vixen, I need you to come upstairs.”

“Mac?”

“Upstairs. There are three doors. Knock on the one at the end of the hall. Now.” Then the grump hung up on me.

Wow, he was in a great mood. I grumbled and then turned to Rodney who was still lingering by the coffee pot. “Here, you can finish this.”

His eyes widened. “I can’t cook!”

I pulled up a recipe for sausage gravy on my phone and then texted it to him. “There. You can read, right? You got this, big guy. Mac wants me.”

He gaped at me, and I patted him on the back reassuringly as I left. Glancing over my shoulder as I opened the door, I found him scrolling on his phone with his brow furrowed as he mouthed what I assumed were the directions I had sent him.

I made my way down the hall, towards the stairs I had been told to never go up.

The short hallway at the top was dark, except for a light coming from under the closed door at the end of the hall.

Hesitantly, I knocked on it. It swung open with force, and I yelped in surprise when I was pulled inside.

Mac had me by the wrist as he slammed the door shut, then he pushed me up against the wall.

Pinning my hands above my head with one hand, he grabbed my chin in the other and kissed me like it was the only thing that could keep him alive.

It was demanding, and rough. His lips exerted an almost bruising pressure on mine, but my body responded almost before my mind could catch up with what was happening.

He wedged his knee between my legs, pushing my thighs apart and rubbing me through my jeans.

Kissing down my jawline, then to my neck, he growled, and I was unable to stifle my moan.

One big hand moved to my breast, pushing up my shirt.

He grabbed my nipple, twisting it painfully.

I whimpered, but he soothed the hurt when he wrapped his mouth around it.

He sucked and nibbled on my breast until I was panting.

Suddenly he stepped back, leaving me a weak-kneed mess, grabbing at the wall for support.

His eyes were wild, and he ran a hand through his hair.

He started to pace the small room, and I took a wobbly step towards him.

“Mac, talk to me. What’s going on?”

He didn’t answer me but sat down on a bed.

I looked around the room for the first time, realizing I was in a more lived-in version of the motel rooms below us.

The furniture was nicer, and there were a couple pictures on the wall.

Slowly, like I was approaching a bear, I moved to the bed and sat next to him.

“Not that I’m complaining, but… what was that, Mac?”

He laughed mirthlessly. “You were with my brother all weekend, Vixen.”

I blinked at him. I wasn’t exactly a vanilla girl. Threesomes weren’t a novelty to me, and I wasn’t really the exclusive type. In the whole host of problems I was dealing with, it hadn’t even occurred to me that I might come between the two brothers. I felt incredibly stupid.

They didn’t exactly seem like the vanilla kind either, so I was trying to figure out where he was coming from. “Have you guys ever, um, shared a girl before?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “This is different.”

“So, you have?” He gave me a hard side-eye, then a gruff nod. “Right… so what’s the issue?”

He startled me again when he stood up like a bottle rocket taking off. I had no idea how the guy moved so fast, and so smoothly. He was like a tiger or something. He walked over to the window. “Like I said, this is different.”

I tossed my hands up in frustration. “Yeah, you said, but you keep leaving out the how part.”

He turned back to me and, in two huge strides, he was on top of me again.

He pushed me back into the bed where I fell with a huff.

Then he was leaning over me, an arm on either side.

A part of me realized this the first time I had seen him without his jacket on, and I ached to trace the black swirls of ink that went up his arms and around his neck and chest. Preferably with my tongue.

He must have seen the look in my eyes, and his darkened in response.

His next words brought me back to earth with a shock.

“How many times did my brother make you come, Vixen? How many times did that pussy shudder around his cock? How many times did you scream his name?”

His filthy words left me speechless, and for a moment, I just stared at him with my mouth open. Then it hit me. “Oh for fuck’s sake, you’re jealous. Aren’t you?” He glared at me, and I knew I had my answer.

We stared at each other for a minute, until I decided I’d had enough of being pinned.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, and used his weight to flip us.

It wasn’t easy, but thank you Academy training—though I doubted very much my instructor had this particular situation in mind when he taught us this move.

Mac stared up at me in shock, but I ignored the look.

“ You have nothing to be jealous of.” His look of shock morphed into one of disbelief.

So I said fuck it, and upped the ante. Placing my hands on his chest, I rolled my hips on his groin, and almost immediately, I felt him harden underneath me.

He grabbed my hips, stilling me, so I leaned down and nibbled on his ear.

I licked the swirl of black ink there, and couldn’t help smiling in satisfaction when I heard him groan.

“Vixen, sit up.” His voice was all gruff command, and it sent shivers down my spine as I complied.

He was still hard as a rock, but I just sat there, staring into his eyes.

While his brothers’ were the color of the sea as it crashed into shore, Mac’s were the color you would find closer to the sea floor.

So dark, so full of secrets. His thumbs started rubbing a bruising pattern on my thigh.

I was starting to realize I really liked the kind of pain this man put me in.

“Mac, I’m not choosing between you and your brother. I just can’t. Maybe that makes me greedy, but it is what it is. But, for as long as you want me, you’ve got me.”

He frowned. “That’s what I’m afraid of, Vixen. What if I never stop wanting you?”

I opened my mouth to reply, when a screeching alarm sounded throughout the whole building. That’s when I realized I smelled smoke.

“Oh fuck me!” I shouted as I jumped off Mac and ran out the door, down the stairs.

Mac was hot on my heels as I yanked the door to the kitchen open to see Rodney running around with a pan that was literally on fire.

He looked completely panicked, and waved the pan around, which only succeeded in dumping the flaming contents on the floor.

A few of his buddies stood at the table, more than a couple of them laughing.

Mac grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and put out the flames, then fixed the laughing Saints with a hard glare that quickly shut them up.

I marched over to Rodney and snatched the pan out of his hand.

I hadn’t realized he was wearing an oven mitt and cried out in pain when my hand met the hot metal, dropping it to the floor.

I swore viciously, turning to the sink and running my red palm under the cold water.

“Rodney, what in the actual fuck, dude? It was gravy. Never in my life have I ever heard of someone setting gravy on fire. Like, how?” I fixed him with a withering look, keeping my hand under the faucet.

Rodney looked like a kicked puppy. “I told you I couldn’t cook,” he muttered.

I sighed as Mac walked over to me. The look he gave Rodney probably could’ve started another fire. I hissed when Mac gently rubbed my hand—it wasn’t a bad burn, but it fucking hurt.

Just then, Dalton and Clint walked in. Clint propped open the door, hollering for a couple of the guys in the garage, telling them it was all hands on deck to clean up the mess. Dalton’s eyes met mine as his brother cradled my burnt hand.

“Well shit, Vixen. You didn’t have to start another fire to get my attention.”

I frowned at him. “This one isn’t on me, thank you very much.”

He grabbed a first aid kit from under the sink and sat at the table. I went to sit next to him, but Mac sat in my chair and dragged me onto his knee. I sat there, keenly aware of the other guys in the room watching me sit on their boss’s lap while the boss’s brother spread burn cream on my hand.

Dalton wrapped my hand in a clean, white bandage. “Alright, baby girl. Don’t get that wet.”

I smiled like a love-drunk teenager at him, and he gave me a funny look. “What?”

I shrugged, leaning back into Mac’s chest.

“I dunno, I just figured you wouldn’t call me that as much when we weren’t alone.”

I felt Mac’s chest vibrate as he grumbled, and I smacked him in the thigh without turning to look at him. I was having none of that jealous shit. I had enough problems as it was.

Dalton smirked at his brother, and then looked at me. “ You’re mine. Well, ours. I think we’ve made that pretty clear, Vixen.”

For the rest of the day, I didn’t leave Mac’s room other than to make lunch and, later, dinner. The upstairs area was evidently where Mac and Dalton lived, having sold their family home after their dad passed. They kept the cabin, but everything else… Too many memories, I guessed.

They pretty much left me to it, coming in to check on me now and then but refusing to let me clean despite my insistence that my hand was fine. Mac dropped me off at home that night because my bike evidently needed more work than I thought.

If it weren’t for the haze of happiness I was in, I probably would’ve noticed the figure in the dark corner of my apartment before locking the door behind me.